In the letter from April of 1439 to the common people in the Skien District, Olav Bukk says, "In addition, dear friends, you should know that I do not know for certain -- "ey vnderstander fulkomlighe" -- from whom this riot and disagreement first came". He also begged them that as soon as people from the Skien District came to the meeting in Oslo they would tell who Hallvard Gråtopp was -- "at I honom vpnemfri" -- and that they would "spare no one neither clergy or layman, who is really guilty in this matter".
What Did Olav Bukk Know? -- We must accept what it says. Olav Bukk did not really know who Hallvard Gråtopp was, nor did he know for certain where he was at the end of April 1439. There is no more basis for doubting Olav Bukk about this than about other matters.
Later in the same letter he mentions "Hallvard Gråtopp and his followers" in a couple of places. Olav Bukk knew that Hallvard led the revolt. Hallvard was never mentioned with this father's name as was customary, that is, by his patronymic, but only with Gråtopp as a cognomen. Was this a kind of alias? Or had he covered his head with a grey hood? Perhaps this was the reason for that name "Gråtopp"?
It is striking that Olav Bukk sends a letter to the common people in the whole Skien District and says that he does not know for certain who Hallvard Gråtopp is; that is how we must understand his statement. We notice the words, "for certain". He did, in fact know something or at least he had certain suspicions.
Why does Olav Bukk use the expression klerk that is, "a cleric"? He does this only that one time when he institutes a search for the man who was behind the revolt. Did Olav have a hunch or did he know something about the leader having a connection with the clergy in one way or another?
Gudmund Helgesson and Hallvard Gråtopp -- In the letter which Gudmund Helgesson of Holt composed in December of 1439, he himself says that he was in the company of Hallvard Gråtopp and such a prominent man as Gudmund who participated in both the revolts of 1436 and 1438 must have been well acquainted with Hallvard, his own leader.
Gudmund Helgesson had several reasons not to name the man. The fact that he used the name "Gråtopp" here therefore need not cause us to wonder.
Sira Hjarrand and Hallvard Gråtopp -- Particularly interesting is the large role which Hjarrand Toraldsson, the Dean of the Gjerpen Deanery, played in the settlement with the common people in this Deanery which included those four skipreida in Grenland, that is, lower Telemark.
In a revolt which was, as far as we know, completely secular, the Church played a great and probably decisive role in the subsequent legal settlement. It is actually difficult to find anything similar in the other revolts. It was not like that in 1436 nor in 1497 nor after the revolt of Herlaug Hudfat in 1508 when the leader was executed at Akershus.
We know that Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson had earlier been the priest at Sauherad. We shall only mention this fact here but shall consider it and his letter more closely later.
There has been doubt about what happened to Hallvard after the revolt. S. Hasund wrote in Our People's Life and History, volume III, page 250, "Enroute to Oslo, the band of rebels was scattered by Svarte Jøns and Fru Sigrid's son-in-law, Olav Buk; Hallvard and many bønder fell." According to those documents which exist about the revolt and about Hallvard Gråtopp, one cannot say that this is correct. They do not mention that loss of life took place near or in Oslo, not one such instance is mentioned. Neither is anything reported about Hallvard's subsequent fate. The only information we then have is the tradition on Vrålstad in Tørdal about "Lord Halvor" and the name of Gråtopp for the District's Fortress which is located on the way toward Tørdal.
Hallvard Survived the Revolt -- According to what Olav Bukk says in his letter, Hallvard was alive in the spring of 1439 which was almost a year after the revolt occurred. At any rate, Olav Bukk knew nothing else. This may sound as if Hallvard had escaped from the place where the revolt happened. The statement in Olav Bukk's letter to the people in the Oslo Diocese also points in that direction when he says that "the common people were greatly deceived and betrayed by Hallvard Gråtopp and his followers". Hallvard and his leading men must thus have left them and entrusted the common people with the task of managing as best they could.
It is very likely that Hallvard drew back to a more remote place and such a place at that time was the Tørdal Annex to Drangedal. He himself need not have been from there but he may have had family and kindred there.
The principle of escaping in that manner was not unknown at that time. Engelbret Gunnarsson killed a bailiff at Romerike in 1497. In the lists of those who were fined after the homicide, 171 bønder are named in Nes and Odalen who admitted guilt together with the murderer but Engelbret is not on the list although he was well known. Shortly thereafter we find him living at Trondenes by Harstad. Engelbret Gunnarsson was a member of a prominent family and was probably the father of the last archbishop in the nation, Olav Engelbretsson.
Hallvard Gråtopp was not accused of manslaughter. His rebellion was nevertheless so serious that the authorities wanted to capture him. Everything suggests that they did not succeed. See more below.
2. Was There a National Meeting in the Summer of 1439?
The national meeting occurred in the summer of 1439, says Halvan Koht in his book, The Uprisings of the Norwegian Bønder, but he does not know what the complaints of the common people were. Koht does not mention the source for this contention. There is actually nothing to be found about this meeting in those documents which are printed in the Diplomatarium Novegicum or in other printed source material, for example, in Norges gamle Love -- NgL -- Norway's Ancient Laws.
Koht probably assumed that the meeting was held. He must have done so particularly on the basis of the letter which King Erik sent to the National Council from Gotland on 3 September 1439 although this letter does not say anything about such a meeting. In the letter King Erik appointed Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim as Norwegian Drottsete. The position of Chancellor was also taken from the Bishop of Oslo, the Dane Jens Jakobsson, and given to the Dean of the Maria Church in Oslo as the custom had been from ancient times.
These were demands which both Amund Sigurdsson and Hallvard Gråtopp had advanced, demands which had general support from the Norwegian chieftains. Just because these demands were fulfilled we cannot assume that there was a national meeting in the summer of 1439 which made the King comply with them. We shall see what the sources have to say about a possible national meeting in the summer of 1439.
What the Sources Report -- In the letter which King Erik sent from Gotland on 3 September of 1439, in addition to other matters, this is written
The letter to which King Erik refers is not extant. The publisher of NgL says that this letter was either published by the National Council "af rigsmødet" in 1437 -- number 90 and 91 -- or by it at the national meeting which was called in the summer of 1439 in connection with the Hallvard Gråtopp riot -- "af det i Anledning of Halvard Graatops oprør sommern 1439 sammenkaldede rigsmøde" -- see number 93 and HT -- Norwegian Journal of History -- 3rd Series, Volume 2, page 120.
If we look more closely at the letter from the King, it is obvious that it is clearly a reply to the demands which were presented at the meeting in February of 1437. We cannot say if it is also an answer to the demands from a possible meeting in the summer of 1439. The letter from the King cannot by itself be taken as proof for a national meeting at that time.
In his letter from April of 1439, Olav Bukk says that the Archbishop, Bishop Audun, Lord Eindrid, Lagmenn and several members of the National Council, with the agreement of the common people held a meeting,"...now recently... in Oslo" about the revolt of Amund Sigurdsson and his followers and then adds "but then came Hallvard Gråtopp and his followers". Therefore Olav Bukk meant that it was necessary that the common people should come with their complaints to a new meeting in Oslo at the time of St. John's Day -- June 24.
As Castellan at Akershus and Feudal Lord over the Akershus Fief which included the Skien District, he summoned people to this meeting which probably did not occur even if Halvdan Koht and others contend it did.
There Can Have Been Several Reasons why no meeting is Oslo occurred during the summer of 1439. The main reason may however have been that Olav Bukk, the leading man in the Eastern part of Norway who was a secular leader and faithful to the King, died before the meeting took place. We do not know if he died on a sickbed or in some other manner. After April of 1439, we do not hear anything more about him nor do we know for certain whether those demands for fines which he set for the common people were paid. They probably were; otherwise there would certainly have been another letter about them from his mother, Sigrid Galle of Brunla.
Olav Bukk disappeared out of Norway's saga in the same way that Amund Sigurdsson did -- without a certain trace, yes, without even a little hint about what happened to him. For Amund we have Gheren's information and for Hallvard Gråtopp we have the tradition about Lord Halvor and the name of the Gråtopp Fortress.
Historians and the National Meeting in the Summer of 1439 -- O. A. Johnsen -- NU 135 -- says
Johnson refers to Ngl, 2 R. I, number 95 and 97. This is the letter from the King which is dated 3 September 1439 and the National Council's letter from 22 August 1440 where they disavow their allegiance to the King. These letters do not mention any national meeting in the summer of 1439 nor anything which can be taken as proof that such a meeting was held.
Halvdan Koht -- NB 34:
Andreas Holmsen on the whole does not mention anything -- NH 363 -- about a national meeting in the summer of 1439 but does mention one in the spring of the same year which would probably be the meeting of the 17th of February 1439:
Steiner Imsen -- CH 4, 369 -- wrote as follows:
Johnsen and Koht thus seem to have made a mistake when they contended that a national meeting was held in the summer of 1439.
3. What Does the Name Gråtopp Mean?
Several theories have been proposed about the name Gråtopp both concerning its meaning and why it was used. "Gråtopp means wolf and may be a nickname they gave him" contends Sannes in Drangedal med Tørdal, 1924. But is gråtopp a dialect word for wolf in Telemark or in other places in Eastern Norway? Dialect researchers do not recognize the word as having that meaning.
Stian Henneseid believes the cognomen was derived from the fact that Hallvard had become gray haired at a young age.
None of these theories have a basis in what the sources report. Even if they say very little about the person of Hallvard Gråtopp, they do say something after all. Only Olav Bukk touches upon a little about the man himself.
Olav Bukk and Hallvard Gråtopp -- In his letter from April of 1439, Olav Bukk asked if the people from the Skien District would, when they came to the meeting in Oslo at St. John's Day, say who Hallvard Gråtopp was. They must spare no one, neither "clergy nor layman who is really guilty in this".
Olav Bukk was not certain if Hallvard was a layman or a cleric, that is, trained for the ministry. Perhaps Olav thought this because he knew that Hallvard Gråtopp wore a gray monk's hood? This is a more probable reason for this name than some reasons people suggested earlier.
Gråtopp -- An Alias? -- The name may also be a kind of alias. If Hallvard wore a monk's habit, it would not be farfetched if "Gråtopp" were used as an alias.
Such a habit or hood was a usual garment for many people in the late Middle Ages. Since the revolt in 1438 must have occurred in June or July, however, it was unusual if Hallvard Gråtopp wore such a habit in the middle of the warmest summer.
Why An Alias? -- Hallvard had several good reasons to appear under an alias. He knew what had happened to Amund Sigurdsson Bolt who was quite certainly killed in 1437. It had not gone better with the two rebel leaders in Sweden. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson had been killed in 1436 and the other, Erik Puke, was convicted and executed soon after New Year's Day the following year.
Without a doubt, Hallvard well knew all this and that forced him to proceed with great caution. He did this so well that, according to the documents we have, the authorities were not able to seize him. They did not even know for certain who he was.
This caution necessarily weakened the organization and the accomplishments of the revolt but it also gave strength by the confusion it created among the authorities. If no national meeting at the time of St. John's Day in 1439 occurred, the 1438 revolt in itself may have helped cause King Erik to exercise more haste in appointing a Norwegian Drottsete and a new Chancellor.
4. Hallvard Gråtopp -- Who Was He?
There are two questions one should propose regarding the man whom the documents present as the leader of the revolt in 1438. First, "Who was Hallvard Gråtopp?" and second, "From where did he come?" These issues may also be stated concisely in another way: if we first find the settlement or district from which he came, it is probably easier to discover the identity of the man. We shall see how much the documents can help us in this regard.
The Leader and His Men -- Nothing indicates that the revolt of 1438 had more than one main leader, namely Hallvard Gråtopp. He is designated as such in all the documents where he is mentioned. The most prominent assistants came from the districts around Oslo: Gudmund Helgesson of Romerike, Sebjørn Niklisson of Aker and Bærum and Torgjuls of Lahell in Lier. In Upper Telemark it was Orm Sigurdsson of Kviteseid, Gunnar of Grave in Seljord and Hallvard Ketilsson of Hjartdal.
From Brunlanes, it must have been Torleiv Solvesson of Linnum and from the Gjerpen Skipreideit was probably Mattis Torgiersson from Holm in Gjerpen. The latter is only mentioned as the representative of the common people in the Gjerpen Skipreide who is involved in the district with Sigrid Galle on the 25th of February in 1439. We thus do not know if he had been with Hallvard Gråtopp but, since fines were levied against all in that Skipeide, he was at any rate counted as a rebel by the authorities.
Among those mentioned, we know that Gudmund Helgesson, Torleiv Solvesson, Mattis Torgeirsson and Gunnar of Grave were members of the lower nobility. Torgjuls of Lahell, who affixed his seal to the letter with Hallvard Gråtopp, must also have been. His property of Åros in Røyken indicates that as does his estate called Lahell which later belonged at least partly to a family of the lower nobility. Among the others who were named as participants in the revolt, we can say about Orm Sigurdsson and Hallvard Ketilsson that they must at least have been prominent bønder. According to what the documents report, Eirik Niklisson was the only one with a lower status.
The Milieu From Which They Came -- It is not likely that Hallvard Gråtopp himself was of a more humble family and position than that of the most prominent of his assistants; thus he must at least have been a member of the lower nobility. The documents strengthen rather than weaken this contention. In the letter of 23 March 1439, Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson says to the common people of the Lindheim Skipreide that the revolt began with "you". We can assume that the leader organized his band with a nucleus from among the people with whom he was acquainted and who were from his own district. Furthermore, there is nothing which indicates that he was not from the Skien District.
Olav Bukk institutes a search for a man, cleric or layman, about whom he asks the common people in the Lindheim District to report. This brings up the point that Gråtopp may have been trained for the priesthood or had another connection with the clergy. As that time, this would have meant that he was an educated man because the Church provided all education. Whether people were engaged in ecclesiastical service or in governmental service, their education was largely the same. From ancient times, the Dean of the Maria Church in Oslo was, for example, also the Chancellor of the Kingdom.
The letter from Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson in the Gjerpen Deanery -- see the document above -- limits our consideration to a particular part of the Skien District, namely, the Lindheim Skipreide, that is, the districts of Heddal, Sauherad and Bø. The first place to look for the man is then naturally in that central area, that is, in the mighty family which had resided and still in the 1400s resided on the estate for which the skipreide was named, Lindheim in Sauherad. Beginning in the 1300s, this family can be traced and it was a prominent family of the lower nobility with a close connection to the higher nobility through marriage.
Torer Ogmundsson, the Priest in Sauherad around the year 1400, seems to have been of that family. He was succeeded by Hjarrand Toraldson who was the Priest there around 1420. He later became Canon in Stavanger, then Canon in Oslo and Dean in Gjerpen Deanery. In his letter of 1439 he thus turns to, among others, his former parishioners. About the family of SiraHjarrand we know nothing, but since he was Dean and Canon, it is logical to believe that he was, at any rate, a member of the lower nobility.
The Family of Chieftains on Lindheim -- In 1397, two "good men", that is noblemen, Olav Torsteinson, Priest at Solum and Dean at Gjerpen, and Torer Ogmundsson affixed their seals to a letter which was composed in Skien -- DN X 77. Torer Ogmundsson is mentioned as Priest in Sauherad in a letter written in 1400 or 1401 -- DN XI 105. Judging by his name and position, there is no other family than the family of Chieftains at Lindheim in the Nes Parish in Sauherad to which we can connect him.
Torer Ogmundsson was thus present at Bjørnsveit in Solum in 1397 together with the
aforementioned Olav Torsteinsson when that old Royal Official Bjørn Torlievsson composed a
deed of conveyance about Klevar in Sauherad. This estate later belonged to the Vrålstad family
in Drangedal until 1535. Bjørn Torlievsson was the most important representative of the family
from Lindheim during the last half of the 1300s. In this time period, we know a great deal about
this family and it is necessary to look more closely at what we do know about it during the time
forward into the 1400s.
A Working Theory -- The sources for the history of Hallvard Gråtopp are few and vague, but a thread binds some of them together in a remarkable way. We shall attempt to follow that thread. At one end we find in 1397 the deed of conveyance of Klevar from Royal Official Bjørn Torleivsson to those daughters of Hallvard, Gudrun and Margreta -- see below -- and at the other end, Torbjørn Hallvardsson at Vrålstad in 1535 selling Klevar to Rolleiv Torsteinsson. Along that thread and later lay the legends of Lord Halvor at Vrålstad.
In order to proceed, a working hypothesis can be of great help. We contend that there is an inner connection between these events and the tradition which later developed. It is therefore natural to investigate the family of Bjørn Torleivsson, the legends about Lord Halvor and other matters connected to Vrålstad and finally the families of the people who bought and sold Klevar in 1535.
It is more than striking that the legends about Lord Halvor are connected precisely to Vrålstad and that the owner there in 1535 also owned Klevar which in 1397 belonged to the mightiest family in the Lindheim Skipreide.
First we shall look more closely at the legends and at the connection Hallvard Gråtopp may have had to Vrålstad.
5. Legends About "Lord Halvor"
The Parish Priest Meldahl is the first about whom we know who recorded some of the legends about Lord Halvor in Drangedal. Meldahl, like other parish priests in the nation at that time, was asked by the authorities to record old legends from their districts. In 1743, Meldahl wrote, among other things, about the estate itself:
Legends Recorded Between 1743 and 1788 -- In 1743, Meldahl tells several typical migratory legends, that is, legends which were told about many ancients in many parts of Norway. Lord Halvor is the main character in the ones which are told in Drangedal. They are legends, for example, about Dårelaupet -- the fool's jump -- and Fangesteinen -- the prisoner's stone -- and about earth which was carried as a punishment. Another is about Blodfeta or Bøfeta which was given to Vrålstad as a fine for murder -- see Sannes' Drangedal med Tørdal.
In "Sillejord's Description" Wille tells that there was supposed to have been a large building on Vrålstad "where a King ruled".
Meldahl use the name "Lord Halvor" while Løvenskiold calls the man a "hero or minor king" and then Wille in 1788 ends up with no less an appelation than "king". In all of the legends and traditions in the local district, the name used was simply Lord Halvor.
Tradition says that Halvor died on Vrålstad and that he was buried there. Another legend reports that his wife was named Tøris and that the district was named for her -- the pronunciation of Tordis in the district was Tøris.
Lord Halvor's Chest -- The only items which are said to have belonged to Lord Halvor and which still exist on Vrålstad today are that chest and a signet ring. They were removed from Vrålstad at the end of the 1800s and were away from the estate for many years, but are now back there.
The bønder on Vrålstad owned the chest in common and considered it to be a sacred thing since it was one of the few items which was left from Lord Halvor. The chest was kept for one year at a time in each of three homes on Vrålstad. Every Christmas Eve, it was moved and the whole household followed the chest to the neighbor. Then Christmas could begin.
A different family came to one of the three homes and they did not know the tradition and sold the chest. Later it was repurchased. It is a typical chest from the Middle Ages. Similar chests exist, for example, in the Hopperstad Stave Church in Vik and in the Lomen Stave Church in Valdres.
Of those documents which were in the chest, about 10 of them are printed in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum. Probably there were more which did not survive because it is hardly likely that many documents did not disappear here as they did in other places. The known documents from the chest are from the time from 1336 and from 1454 and later.
Other Momentos from the Middle Ages at Vrålstad -- Those written sources from the 1700s mention two special buildings on Vrålstad, a storehouse and a residence. The storehouse was similar to the Kravik Storehouse at Numedal and the Rolstad Storehouse in Gudbrandsdalen, says N. Nicolaysen -- "Annual Description for F.t.n.F.B.", that is, The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Antiquities, 1882. In 1885, N. Nicolaysen wrote an article about the buildings on Vrålstad.
The District Museum in Skien has a carved plank from Vrålstad. Conservator Rikard Berge in 1919 suggests in Norsk folkekulture -- Norwegian Popular Culture -- that it may have been a door or a cover for a look-out or a door post from the Storehouse building at Vrålstad.
Names Mentioned in the Legends -- According to the legends, a man freed himself from a death judgment by carrying earth from Fiskevatn to a little piece of land between the rocks and the lake below Vrålstad.
In the upper end of Bjår Lake, Vrålstad had a hayfield, a track, called Blodfeta, now Bøfeta, which a man from Steinsland gave to Lord Halvor as blood money or wergild paid to a kin of a slain man.
According to the legends, Lord Halvor owned many estates located all the way from Vinje down to the ocean, Vefall and Straume, among others, near the Toke Lake in Drangedal where he kept his boats.
Most of these estates are mentioned in documents which were in the chest at Vrålstad. Vefall was, as a matter of fact, allodial property in the Vrålstad family as late as 1624 and we later see the deserted estate called Fiskevatn is a summer dairy for Vrålstad.
The Appellation Lord Halvor is always used in the legends from Tørdal about Halvor. It is only in writings from the 1700s that words like hero, minor king and king are used. In the district, he must have been considered to be a Lord, that is, a member of the nobility. Since the title of Lord is only connected to Halvor among all the men we know about who are from Vrålstad during the 1300s and the 1400s, there had hardly been any other Lord on the estate either before or after him.
This must be taken as proof that Lord Halvor was from outside of Vrålstad and that a Lord was an exception there.
6. Hallvard Gråtopp and Drangedal
Professor Ludvig Daae was the first who connected Hallvard Gråtopp with the legends about Lord Halvor in Drangedal and who presented the theory that this man was the same person as the man whose name was Hallvard Toresson, one of the leaders of the revolt of Amund Sigurdsson Bolt in 1436. According to Daae, Hallvard Toreson and Gudmund Helgesson from Romerike were among the leaders in the revolts of both 1436 and 1438.
It has not so far been possible to present absolute proof that Ludvig Daae was correct. On the other hand, it has not been possible to produce convincing counterproof to his theory.
Hallvard Gråtopp and Vrålstad -- Those who have tried, by following Ludvig Daae, to solve the puzzle of Hallvard Gråtopp have had a problem about finding conformity between the fact that in the legends Halvor is called Lord while there are no lords, that is, noblemen, on Vrålstad either before or after Hallvard's time.
Stian Henneseid in his book about Hallvard Gråtopp, therefore concludes that Hallvard was not a nobleman but was called Lord because he was so highly regarded. This is not probable. One does not know of anyone in the 1300s or 1400s who was called Lord for that reason. It is therefore reasonable to believe that Hallvard had come from outside that area and that a lord in that area was something completely unusual.
The Vrålstad Estate is located in the Tørdal annex of Drangedal, in that Old Telemark Deanery in the Hamar Bishopric. In the 1200s, the estate was divided into two sections, Upper and Lower Vrålstad but they were combined again after the Black Death, probably in 1378. The name of the estate was originally Roaldsstadir, but around 1500 the pronunciation of Roald was changed to Vrål in the dialect and the name of the estate became Vrålstad. The family there is known from around the year 1300.
A man by the name of Hallvard lived on Vrålstad and died before 1341. He had the following children: Olav who took over the estate, Aslak who was dead before 1341, Gunleik who was alive in 1341 -- see DN I 215, Ingrid who was alive in 1378 and who had a son named Anund.
In 1378 there were still two estates on Vrålstad. Signe was alive then and she was the widow of Olav Hallvardsson of Vrålstad. They had, at any rate, one son whose name was Hallvard because in 1378 he and his mother bought three laupsland in the Lower Estate from Ingrid Hallvardsdaughter with the agreement of Anund, her son -- DN III 316. It was probably then that Vrålstad was combined into one estate again.
Vrålstad During the 1400s -- Hallvard Olavsson of Vrålstad was thus mentioned in 1378. His son Olav was alive then but he is not mentioned in 1393. Then his brother, Torbjørn Hallvardson, owned the estate -- DN VII 335. Thereafter there is a long lacuna in the list of known owners of Vrålstad. Not until a new Torbjørn Hallvardsson shows up in 1482 are we on firm ground again.
In the time between 1393 and 1482, there must have been at least one owner about whom we do not know anything for certain. It may be supposed that Torbjørn Hallvardsson was the resident from 1393 until around 1430 and that he died without leaving an heir. So who took over the estate? Here it may be that the destiny of the gift document of 1397 may tell us something. The women relatives of the Royal Official Bjørn Torleivsson were Hallvard's daughters -- written in two words in the document although we should not read too much into that. If they were sisters of Torbjørn Hallvardsson of Vrålstad who is mentioned in 1378, it is reasonable to believe that one of them and her husband or her son took over the estate. The fact that, through the gift document of 1397, the family at Vrålstad became owners of Klevar in Sauherad points in that direction. With that we come to Torbjørn Hallvardsson of 1482 -- mentioned from 1482 to 1506. It was his son Hallvard Torbjørnsson, who sold Klevar to Rolliev Torsteinsson of Lindheim. If this is correct, the father of the Torbjørn Hallvardsson who was mentioned from 1482 to 1506 was Hallvard Toresson Gråtopp, son of Sira Torer Ogmundsson of Sauherad and one of the daughters of Hallvard Olavsson who was mentioned in 1378.
Since Klevar was allodial property in 1535 which belonged to Hallvard Torbjørnsson, it must also have been allodial property in the family at the time his father, Torbjørn Hallvardsson, was alive. It could not have been allodial property belonging to Hallvard Torbjørnsson's mother because his mother was probably Hustru Elin of Asdal in Adger. Torbjørn Hallvardsson must have had this allodial estate before 1480. But from whom did it come then if not from "Hallvard's daughters"?
To Whom was Hallvard Married? From all of this we also arrive at the conclusion that those two sisters, the daughters of Hallvard must have been closely connected to Vrålstad. If one of them was the mother of Hallvard Gråtopp, it is nevertheless difficult to say which of the two she was, Margreta or Gudrun.
As problematic is the question about whom Hallvard Gråtopp married. According to legend and tradition, his wife was named Tøris, a name which is the dialect's way of pronouncing Tordis. In a document from Vrålstad which is dated 1452, a Tordis M....daughter of Vrålstad is mentioned but it is uncertain exactly who she was.
Another legend says that Hallvard Gråtopp was married to Elsebet or Elisabet, daughter of that Swedish rebel leader, Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson. It is not known from Swedish sources that he had a daughter. Obviously there is no certain proof either that he was childless. A signet ring with E.E.S. and the tradition which is connected with it is taken as proof that the legend is correct. This, however, is not a guarantee of it. Neither is the tradition about Tøris necessarily true, but Hallvard could well have been married twice.